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Bolognius Maximus
"Bolognius Maximus" is the 1st segment in the 12th episode of the first season of Invader Zim. It premiered on September 21, 2001, on Nickelodeon. Plot Summary When Dib once again notices that Zim isn’t eating his food, he throws a piece of bologna at him in order to taunt him. This instead caused Zim immense pain, and fused with his skin. Zim vows to get his revenge after all the other Skoolchildren laughed at him. During the next day of Skool, Dib sits on a tack, which causes Zim to begin laughing hysterically. Dib believes Zim is just being pathetic but is oblivious that Zim really is planning something as that night in his lab the Irken looks with satisfaction at a monitor, mockingly telling Dib to "sleep well, for it will be the last peaceful sleep he will ever know." The next day, Dib notices that not only does he taste good, but all of the neighborhood dogs seem to think so too. Dib assumes that Zim just got something on his skin to make him smell and taste like something that dogs love, but the rest of the class and even Ms. Bitters thinks Dib smells awful. He gets sent to the bathroom to wash himself in the toilet, even though Willy was the last one to use it. In the bathroom, Dib runs some tests on a sample of his skin and the tack he sat on yesterday, and discovers that Zim actually introduced a foreign DNA sequence into his body, causing him to turn into bologna. Dib returns to class and theatened Zim to give him a cure, but Zim tells him there's no cure and begins to laugh evilly while their peers cover their noses in disgust and Dib runs away screaming. Later, Zim is walking home from Skool and finds Dib surrounded by dogs. Dib admits that Zim's plan was pretty good, and holds his hand out in defeat. Zim reaches out to shake it when he believes Dib has finally conceded to his will, only to get pricked by the same tack that he had Dib sit on. Dib tells Zim that now he has to find a cure to save himself as well, but Zim declares that he will find a cure and keep it all to himself. However, Zim starts transforming into bologna much quicker than Dib, to the point where his base thinks that Zim is an intruder. Having no other choice, Zim goes to Dib for help, and the two try to find a cure together. When they finally think they got it, Dib drinks it and only turns more into bologna, the process having been actually sped up, this makes Dib angry, and blames the whole thing on Zim, but Zim says it's Dib's "inferior equipment" that is at fault, and they start fighting. However, the fight ends when Zim and Dib realize they are surrounded by dogs, and they find refuge inside an abandoned house, fully transformed into giant bologna sausages. Facts of Doom Cultural References *The episode's story is heavily based on the sci-fi horror film The Fly. *Ms. Bitters's movements in this episode, when she tries to identify who in her class was smelling awful, resemble the movements of the Velociraptors from the film Jurassic Park. *When Dib shoves Zim through the vent near the end, a panel reading "DMZ 34" can be seen in the upper right. This may be a reference to the Korean Demilitarized Zone, which divides North and South Korea and lies on the 34th parallel south. Trivia *Dib may have scared Gaz for the very first time; when he tells her to "taste him" because "he's delicious", she takes a few steps back before running away. Paradoxically, she eventually takes a bite out of her brother's head later on. *Willy first appears in this episode. He is based on an identical-looking character, perhaps an early design of himself, that appeared in the "Pilot". *One of the bathroom walls reads "Zim is an alien!", and another reads "He really is!". This is possibly a reference to the "Original Pilot", where Dib had to write "Zim is not an alien" hundreds of times on a chalkboard and you can see those very lines on the board. *Zim is the only one in the classroom that isn't bothered by Dib's smell, this implies that Zim may have gotten used by foul smells, most likely because of the stuff GIR brings in to the base. *This episode had a reference made about in "Gaz, Taster of Pork", when Dib states: "I helped you when we were turning into giant bolognies!", to which Zim replies with "YOU'RE MAKING IT UP!". This scene proved that the events of Invader Zim do occur in a floating timeline. How they recovered from the virus is never explained, but it may be possible that they eventually found the cure or that the virus was just temporary. *In the comic series, it has become a running gag to reference the events of this episode: **In Issue 13, Dib mentions the time that Zim turned him into baloney as one of the reason why they're not friends. **In Issue 25, one of the scenes on Fitzoo-Menga's computer is of Zim and Dib as walking baloneys. **In Issue 26, Carl thinks that Zim smells like bologna. **In Issue 47, it's shown that Zim 1989 A.K.A The Meat is an alternative version of Zim that was never able to reverse the effects of the bologna (which Dib states is quite easy, though he's interrupted before he can explain how to do so). *This is the sixth episode GIR doesn't appear in. *In this episode, you actually see blood on Dib's hand. *This episode, along with "Game Slave 2", are Jhonen Vasquez's favorite episodes of Season One. *Zim said that Irken babies play with more advanced toys than the equipment in Professor Membrane's lab, when actually he should've said Irken smeets. Things You Might Have Missed *At the beginning of the episode next to Zim's table, Dib can be seen in the next table, what's odd about this is that he's not sitting next to Gaz but rather with other children, this is surprising since the other schoolchildren would rather avoid him like in "A Room with a Moose." *When Dib starts screaming and the camera pans to the bathroom stall next to him, the kid in that stall wets his pants. *The trays at the beginning of the episode have meat grease under them, which could mean that the school doesn't clean the trays as a part of the filthy theme in the world of[[Invader Zim| Invader Zim]]. *Iggins can be seen in the cafeteria in the second shot. Iggins would incidentally play a major role in the episode paired with this one. Inconsistencies and Animation Errors *At one point while Zim is in Dib's lab, when they get repelled by the mixture, Zim's eyes are seen as their normal ruby color when he should have his disguise on. **However, it might not be a definite mistake, as his lenses could have slipped off given that they can apparently slip quite easily as implied by the many times they have done so in public. **Another clue that this is not an animation error is the fact that Zim doesn't seem to be wearing his wig either. *When Gaz takes a bite out of Dib's head, look carefully, as she had three fingers instead of the standard four. *While Dib is talking about how Zim never eats the food, the boy in the background is sipping from a juice box. The straw's layering is messed up during that scene. *Brian, the boy who sits next to Zim in class, is seen bald during one of the scenes, despite the fact that he has hair. See also *Bolognius Maximus (Transcript) *Bolognius Maximus Screenshots References *http://www.tv.com/invader-zim/bolognius-maximus/episode/97848/summary.html es:Mortadelus maximus Category:Season 1 Category:Episodes Category:Screenshots